Sandy Kenyon

Sandy Kenyon, born Sanford Klein on August 5, 1922, in the Bronx, New York, was an American actor whose career spanned film, television, and stage. He died on February 20, 2010, at his home in Los Angeles from kidney cancer at the age of 87.

Before entering the entertainment industry, Kenyon served as a pilot in the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II. His early television work included the role of Cashbox Potter in the syndicated adventure series Major Del Conway of the Flying Tigers in 1953, followed by a co-starring role as Des Smith in the syndicated drama Crunch and Des in 1956. In 1960, he portrayed a pre-presidential Abraham Lincoln in the NBC western series Riverboat, appearing in the episode "No Bridge on the River" as an attorney representing a railroad in a lawsuit brought by riverboat captain Grey Holden, played by Darren McGavin. The following year, he was cast as Ritter in The Americans, a 17-episode NBC series examining how the Civil War divided American families. During the 1963–1964 season, he took on a recurring role as Shep Baggott in five episodes of the ABC western The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters.

Kenyon accumulated an extensive list of television guest appearances across multiple decades and genres. His credits in western series alone included The Rifleman, Colt .45, Yancy Derringer, Have Gun-Will Travel, The Tall Man, Gunsmoke, and Bonanza. Beyond westerns, he appeared in Richard Diamond, Private Detective, The Fugitive, Room for One More, All in the Family, The Dick Van Dyke Show, That Girl, The Partridge Family, Hogan's Heroes, Adam-12, Kung Fu, Peter Gunn, Quincy M.E., Knots Landing, Designing Women, and The Twilight Zone. His Dick Van Dyke Show appearances extended to the 2004 reunion special "159th Episode."

His film work included Al Capone in 1959, Easy Come, Easy Go in 1967, Tom Sawyer and Breezy in 1973, and MacArthur in 1977, in which he portrayed General Jonathan M. Wainwright, who spent much of World War II as a Japanese prisoner of war. Additional film credits included When Time Ran Out in 1980, The Loch Ness Horror and Lifepod in 1981, and Down on Us in 1989. In the realm of animation, Kenyon provided the voice of Jon Arbuckle in Here Comes Garfield, the first Garfield animated television special.

Kenyon's stage career began with the world premiere of Edna St. Vincent Millay's Conversation at Midnight in Los Angeles in 1961, directed by Robert Gist and produced by Worley Thorne in association with Susan Davis. The cast included James Coburn, Jack Albertson, Eduard Franz, and John Marley. The production opened at the Coronet Theatre and, following strong audience response, transferred after two months to the larger 550-seat Civic Playhouse, where it ran for a total of six months. Three years later, Gist and Thorne mounted a Broadway production of the same work at the Billy Rose Theatre, again with Kenyon in the cast. That production ran for eight previews and four performances. Kenyon's second Broadway credit was Man of La Mancha, which he appeared in between 1964 and 1965. He also performed in regional theatre in Los Angeles throughout his career.